Coconut flavor is a popular flavor and is used widely in confectionaries, bakery products, fruit compositions, toppings, whips, and the like. Conventionally, coconut flavor is introduced into such food compositions by way of dehydrated coconut meat or "coconut cream", made by highly mascerating the meat and juice of the coconut. For many fruits and vegetables, the characteristic flavor thereof is obtained from the "juice", e.g., grape juice, tomato juice, celery juice, etc. However, contrarily, the juice associated with the coconut, i.e., the "milk", does not have the characteristic coconut flavor therein. Accordingly, for coconut flavoring purposes, it is necessary to use the coconut meat.
In one process for producing coconut flavoring, the natural meat is shredded or grated and dehydrated to a shelf-stable form, often including substantial amounts of sugar for preservation purposes. The dehydrated coconut is rehydrated prior to use in or while in food compositions to impart the characteristic coconut flavor thereto. However, coconut meat, either in the natural state or in the dehydrated form, contains substantial amounts of non-soluble matter referred to as "fiber". When dehydrated coconut meat is used, the fiber imparts a somewhat chewy and tough characteristic to the composition in which it is included. Further, the shredded form imparts a rather rough texture to the food composition. When the dehydrated coconut meat is used in the grated form, the fiber produces a somewhat gritty texture and mouth feel. While the grated form is considerably preferable to the shredded form in many uses, i.e., ice cream, whips, toppings, confectionaries, and the like, the gritty texture and mouth feel is quite undesirable. Some efforts have been made in the art to mitigate these effects, but those efforts have not been entirely satisfactory, especially from an economical point of view. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,606 teaches treatment of coconut meat at elevated temperatures with an aqueous solution of an acid, such as hydrochloric acid, to tenderize the meat by cell disruption, but as that patent points out, the process results in some modification of the natural coconut flavor and a relatively mild flavor results. In another process, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,655,409, flash steaming of the coconut meat is suggested to fissure the structure of the coconut, into which is infused a glycerol.
In another version of a process which utilizes essentially the whole coconut, U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,912, teaches a process where the juice of coconuts is separated from the meat and after heating the juice (with water added thereto), it is recombined with the fresh coconut meat on an equal weight basis. The combination of juice and meat is ground to a pulp and the pulp is pressed through a perforated conical press to obtain "coconut cream", which is heated, compounded with additives (such as sucrose), heated to a high temperature, e.g., 189.degree. F., for a prolonged period of time, e.g., 20 minutes, homogenized and bottled or canned. However, the presence of the juice (which contains mainly the sugar) in the "coconut cream", may cause considerable difficulty in that the sugar may discolor the "coconut cream" during the long, high temperature heating. Additionally, the "coconut cream" will contain most of the fiber of the coconut meat, which results in undesired taste and mouth-feel.
Accordingly, processes have been proposed in the art to provide coconut flavor wherein rather than using the whole coconut meat, the flavor liquid of the meat is used. These efforts have been only partially successful. Some of the processes result in a product where much of the characteristic fresh coconut flavor is lost. Other of the processes result in a product which is not shelf-stable for substantial periods of time and unwanted off-flavors rapidly occur. Yet other of the processes produce a product which cannot be provided in either a significantly condensed or powdered form, and, accordingly, interfere in flavoring food compositions because of the bulk involved. Finally, other of the processes produce flavors which develop unwanted off-flavors with storage.
A significantly improved process in the above regards is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,573,064. That process avoids that problem of undue bulk by providing a powdered coconut flavor produced only from the coconut meat. In the process, the juice is discarded and the fresh meat is ground with water until a pulp having an average particle size of 200 microns or less is achieved. The pulp is filtered and the filtrate does not have particles over 30 microns therein. The filtrate is compounded with a protein carrier and emulsifier and dried, e.g., spray dried. While this process produce a powdered coconut flavor, the requirement to grind the meat to 200 microns or less and filter to a finness of 30 microns or less presents difficult processing steps. In addition, during storage of the powder, unwanted "soapy-like" flavor may develop.